Beast Animation blog

Making of PEFC

2011-07-12T09:35:00.002+02:00

And here it is: the 'making of' of the new TV-commercial we did for client PEFC. Agency is McCann Lowe, production, direction and animation by Beast Animation.

Busy Beasts

2011-06-20T23:48:00.000+02:00

While Willy is still walking around in our premises there are a lot of crazy happy people giving the best of themselves in stopmotion world. The “Oh Willy” team is shooting on full speed and are making great shots. Very promising!

In the meantime there is another Beast crew shooting a new commercial. As usual we are not really allowed to show images from the film before it’s being aired. So here’s is one not showing anything whilst showing something. (Sorry, we’re a bit tired after a few 20 hour shooting days /-)

We’ll post the commercial and a REAL making-of in a few weeks.

Cheers!

Willy @ Beast

2011-06-06T19:33:00.000+02:00

Since a few weeks we have a very very very special guest at our studios: Willy. He’s the leading actor in a new short film Beast Animation is producing. The film is written and directed by Emma De Swaef and Marc James Roels and the title is… “Oh Willy”.

Our co production partners are Vivement Lundi (F), Polaris (F) and Il Luster (NL).

The universe of Willy is very rich and completely made out of wool (and some other fabrics). Emma and Marc are doing an exceptionally good job supported by a very enthusiast team. Andreas De Ridder and Steven De Beul have been animating the first part of the shoot. Steven will move on to other projects and is replaced by Alice Tambellini. The sets where mainly constructed in France by Vivement Lundi, the remaining sets are build at Beast by Joeri Bollaert with some assistance of Dimitri Vandermeulen. Puppets are finished and maintained by Emma, assisted by Babs Raedschelders and Dorien Schetz. Who are also building al lot and a lot of beautiful props. Besides directing, Marc is also doing a great job as DOP. And the whole shoot is controlled and planned by Marianne Chazelas.

Small team. Great results! Enjoy these making of "Oh Willy" pictures.

Willy acting one of his first scenes

Steven animating Willy's mother.

Emma, Marc and Steven discussing animation and rigging.

Willy at the puppet hospital.

Emma preparing the Yeti for shooting.

The small set where we shoot the interior scenes.

Andreas animating little Willy.

The film will be finished by end of this year. Without any doubt more news later on!

New frontiers

2011-05-25T00:36:00.000+02:00

After almost seven years of stopmotion fun and craziness in our studios in Brussels, we decided it was time to move on. And move out!

So Beast has moved to a brand new studio in Mechelen (between Brussels and Antwerp).

We didn’t have the time really for champagne and oysters, nor a housewarming party. Yet ;-) We’ve moved at the end of April and started up our new short film production “Oh Willy” at the same time. The film is written and directed by Emma De Swaef and Marc Roels and produced by Beast Animation in co-production with Vivement Lundi (F), Polaris (F) and Il Luster (NL). We’ll show you more very soon. In the meantime you can have a look at Emma and Marc’s previous stop motion film: http://youtu.be/IqOObTphuPQ

Two weeks ago our new studio was the location for a evening session about “social responsibility at IKEA” organised by the Expert Group Internal & Employer Branding of the Foundation Marketing So we prepared our new meeting /lunch room...

Apparently our visitors had a good time at Beast as well ;-)

And well, let’s give you a sneak peek anyway. We’ve build 3 shooting studios for “Oh Willy” and for one of them we’ve installed this cyclo of about 5 m by 14 m…

As we said: new frontiers. And moving on!

Full House

2011-03-14T12:58:00.001+01:00

Last week our studios have been fully crowded. Eve Martin & Nico Bueno are shooting their short “Terre Vague”, a rather experimental film, combining live-action and stopmotion. The quite large crew (ca 25 people) was shooting on location for a while and than landed at the Beast studios for 10 days of green key shoot.

At the end of March the stopmotion part will be shot in our studios.

You can see some pictures from the location shoot on: http://www.flickr.com/photos/neverneverlight/sets/72157626218763566/

The film is produced by La Parti Production and Beast Animation.

In the meantime we’ve been doing a live shoot for a new Paranix commercial: models, styling, agency, technical crew, etc invading the rest of our studios.

Beast is producing and directing the film. We’ll post some pics when it’s on air.

And while all this is going on we’re working on our super short series: Bazas!

Keep you posted ;-)

Beast @ Anima 2011!

2011-03-02T21:58:00.001+01:00

Coming Friday, 5^th of march '11, the International Animation Film Festival of Brussels kicks off. They’re celebrating their 30^th edition!!! Find all info on www.anima2011.eu

And (of course ;-) Beast Animation is joining the party! Not only is our leader for the Woestijnvis program “Man Bijt Hond” screened in the “This is Belgium” sessions. There will also be an exhibition of the sets and puppets we made and animated for the leader. The expo will take place in the central bar (where else?) of the festival.

The festival runs from Friday 5^th ‘till Sunday 13^th of march 2011 @ Flagey, Brussels.

Hope to see you there!

Beast (re)animates dead animals

2010-12-23T10:02:00.001+01:00

To end 2010 with a bang, Beast Animation is working on a new TV commercial, we’re shooting a new Bazas game and are preparing the production of the Bazas series! About al this there will be more news very soon.

In the second week of December, Beast Animation has been animating on Bertrand Mandico’s new short: “La resurrection des natures mortes”. The film is a mix of live action and stopmotion.

Our job was to animate dead animals. We had already worked with Bertrand and were familiar with his strange but strong universe. So there we were, giving life to animal corpses. Quit an extraordinary experience ;-)

The first mission was to animate a horse. Please note that no animals where killed for the sake of the film. The horse for example was very old and became blind recently, so his owner decided to end its misery. And gave permission to Bertrand and his crew to use the body for the film.

On the first day we shot 20seconds in 10 hours. The horse was cooperating quit well. He even let us animate his mouth...

Second, was a running dog with flowers growing out of his belly. This dog had been working in several films before dying of age.

Problem was that the dog seemed to be dead way longer than the horse. So the air, although extremely cold, was not that fresh. After 11 hours of shoot the dog is running again. And he can continue infinitely.

After" the dog experience" there was a women waiting to animated. Luckily she was not dead, but she could play for dead quit well ;-) Little bird heads are holding and pulling up her hair.

During an hour and a half the actress hardly moved, while the bird heads were animated around her. And I can assure you, it was almost freezing inside the “studio”.

And last but not least: the hare. This is the first animal to appear animated in the film. He is laying on a black surface, and every image there are white chalk, handwritten numbers counting the frames.

After a 4 hour shoot the hare is running again!

We are not allowed to show you the animation at this point, but will try to do so when the film comes out. Expected before the summer of 2011.

Director Bertrand Mandico and main actress Elina Lowensohn keeping the freezing animator company, giving some instructions, telling stories AND opening a fresh beer every now and then.

Cheers!

New work coming up!

2010-07-31T22:54:00.003+02:00

Sorry for being so silent lately. We’ve been very busy the last months We would love to show you some images but these projects are still “top secret”. So we’ll try you show you something without showing you anything... Capice?

We've been shooting a commercial for big pharma company. Around the beautiful set we’ve build a complete “white box”. Hot animation!

Andreas De Ridder animating our crazy character.

We will be able to show you the result soon!

Only two days ago we finished shooting the new leader for “Man Bijt Hond”.

Just as last year David Toutevoix was our DOP.

Andreas and Ben animating until 1 in the morning AND dancing afrobeat J

Joeri Bollaert and Carole Pizzaferri preparing the last set for “Man Bijt Hond”.

The show will start on (Flemish) television at the end of august. We’ll show our international friends the result a little after.

And there is more to come!!!

“Man Bijt Hond” – the spring version.

2010-04-23T18:04:00.000+02:00

Spring, blossoms, green grass, flowers and the first warming sun... We’ve just shot a new, and final, version of the leader for the TV show 'Man bijt Hond’. Production company Woestijnvis asked us to make an adaptation of the leader with the change of each season.

Spring is on TV! Here are some making of pictures.

Lotus Caramelized biscuits commercial

2010-04-06T16:49:00.000+02:00

Here are some making of pics of the stop motion commercial we did for Lotus, using real caramelized biscuits and an adapted coffee cup in a set we constructed in our studio. Agency is Duval Guillaume, the commercial is produced, directed and animated by Beast Animation and can be watched here or here.

DVD “Panique au village” out now!

2010-04-02T14:49:00.001+02:00

Get some madness into your living room and on your TV: “Panique au village” is finally available on DVD! Since the 1^st of april in France and from the 7^th of april in Belgium for the French version. For the Flemish version “Paniek in het Dorp” you’ll have to wait until April 28^th. CRAZY FUN!!!

VW-BlueMotion on air

2010-03-22T20:58:00.000+01:00

The VW-commercial for which we build the sets and 'animatronics' is now on air. Since the idea of the commercial is that it is shot with the least CO2 emission possible, the sets were build using recycled material, and all the animation/movement was done using 'manpower' only. For this project, we were happy to work with director JP Frenay for production company Latcho Drom. Agency is DDB Belgium.
The commercial can be viewed here.

Last week's meeting with a legend

2010-03-19T02:52:00.000+01:00

Last week Beast Animation had the privilege to welcome Bruce Bickford. The legendary director/animator paid a little visit to our studios.

We had a nice talk about his work…

…and about our work.

Always a pleasure to meet a legend!

Pixilated movies for University of Antwerp on TV

2010-03-19T00:16:00.000+01:00

The two pixilated films we made for the University of Antwerp, are finally on television. You can also see them on the Beast YouTube channel.

Pixilated movies for University of Antwerp

2010-02-17T23:25:00.001+01:00

For Mosquito, an Antwerp based communication agency, we adapted their print campaign for the University of Antwerp into two pixilated movies. Because of the small budget, we proposed to shoot the clips as straight forward as possible, without loosing the look and feel of the print campaign. That's why there is this funny guy with a helmet on his head on which we attached different printed positions of a Shakespeare and Darwin picture. Both Mosquito and the University are pleased with the result, which will be on air from early March.

We have been busy...

2010-01-05T13:14:00.000+01:00

that's why it took us a while to post some news here :-).

For Woestijnvis, we shot the Winter-version of the 'Man bijt Hond'-leader in Ypres. This version will be screened until the Spring-version we will shoot in March.

For our Beast Wishes we created a youtube game with a new character called 'Bazas'. Every single aspect of this project was done in-house: puppet-building, animation, postproduction image and music. We are planning more funny stuff with him in 2010.

For Strass Interactive, we build a prototype of a puppet they wanted to use in an online campaign.

For director Douglas Boswell we are building an animation puppet called 'Slensje'. It's a test for one of his upcoming projects.

For our 'Master Bator' project, we made a (slightly animated) Season's Greetings card, which can be seen here.

And in the meantime we are pitching for commercials, installing a (director's) pool with young stopmotion-talent, continuing the preproduction of 'Beiaard' and the European Living Tales and we are developing a brand-new children's series...

As we said... we are busy :-)

Social Media: here we come!

2009-11-26T19:30:00.019+01:00

Since we are developing new concepts for the use of stopmotion animation on mobile phone and internet, we thought it might be usefull to start our own fanpage on facebook. So here it is: the Beast Animation fan page. Become a fan and be the first to know what Beast Animation is working on. If you want to see what we did so far, visit our youtube channel or take look at our website.

Beast Animation on Facebook

Another Cravendale commercial at Beast Animation

2009-11-19T10:35:00.000+01:00

For the sixth time already, directors Stéphane Aubier and Vincent Patar were asked by Wieden & Kennedy (GB) to make a funny commercial for Cravendale Milk. And for the sixth time Patar and Aubier (and their producers La Parti) asked Beast Animation to coordinate the preparations and the shooting of the commercial. After 'The Last Glass', 'Out of Stock', 'Bad Bull', 'Toe Tapping' and 'Slurpy Milk Bar', we are happy to have them back in our studios for a new exciting adventure of Pirate, Cyclist and Cow!

Panique au Village on shortlist Oscars

2009-11-12T11:58:00.005+01:00

Panique au Village (A Town called Panic), directed by Aubier et Patar, and co-produced by Beast Animation, is on the list of 20 films who make a chance to be nominated for the Oscar of Best Animated feature. The nominees will be announced in february, the Oscar ceremony itselve will take place on March 7th. Fingers crossed... and find some (handmade) extracts of the film on our youtube-channel.

Man bijt hond... new version of the leader!

2009-10-26T10:59:00.000+01:00

A few months ago, Beast created the new leader of the Woestijnvis-program 'Man bijt Hond' (see making of and it's a wrap). The idea was that, during the year - and with the change of seasons - certain shots would be adapted. And with the start of fall, the first adaptation is a fact! The new version of the trailer will be on screen one of the upcoming weeks. Enjoy these making of pictures.

Beast Animation presents Master Bator @ MIPCOM

2009-10-09T16:28:00.002+02:00

Last week Beast Animation was at MIPCOM 2009, the International Film and Programme Market for Television, Video, Cable and Satellite in Cannes, France. Beast presented Master Bator, a brandnew 52 webisodes' series, to several interested content aggregators and producers. Enjoy the pictures of Ben and Pilar in Cannes... and try to find Master Bator himself!

More pictures of Master Bator in Cannes on the facebook fan page.

Master Bator wallpaper

2009-09-28T12:10:00.006+02:00

Become a fan of Master Bator on facebook and spread the semen!
Download Master Bator's wallpaper and pimp up your desktop.

Master Bator | Promote your Page too

Master Bator officially launched...

2009-09-16T23:32:00.006+02:00

We've launched Master Bator! Our superhero was object of a small campaign we set up towards pub-agencies in Belgium. We wanted to present Beast Animation and it's capabilities in a catchy and funny way. So we send them our 'Beast Animation. Handmade Quality.'-visual. This is a making of picture we took during the shooting of the Master Bator pilot. From there on - and by clicking on the dick! - viewers were redirected to our youtube channel where they could not only see the finished Master Bator pilot, but also other Beast Animation (thus handmade) work.

Beast Animation's showreel 2009 online

2009-09-11T11:13:00.007+02:00

Here's the new showreel of our stopmotion company. We made a selection out of our most recent work and pimped it up with some extra shots, specially made for this trailer.

We've been making / breaking the music and had a lot of fun editing all this.
We hope you like it as much watching it, as we did making it! Rock the Beast!!!

'Beiaard' teaser online

2009-09-04T15:24:00.031+02:00

We finished the teaser for our 26’ TV special called “Beiaard” which will be presented at the Cartoon Forum 2009 in Norway. (Read more about all this on our posts of the 11^th and 13^th of august ’09).

You can see the trailer on the "Beast Animation Channel" on Youtube. Cheers!

Beast trailer 2009

2009-09-04T14:52:00.020+02:00

We thought it was about time to make a new trailer of our most recent work. A short, catchy and vivid compilation driven by pumping breakbeats. We decided to pimp up this compilation by adding new takes, specially made for this trailer. We’ve been making / breaking the music and we’ve just finished “the pimp animations”. Have a look at some making-of pictures. The trailer itself will be online very soon!!

Beiaard trailer - Production Stills

2009-08-13T18:03:00.003+02:00

'Beiaard' trailer - Cartoon Forum

2009-08-11T18:51:00.007+02:00

Beast Animation's project 'Beiaard' is selected for Cartoon Forum in Rogaland, Norway. We will have the opportunity to present 'Beiaard' and the European Living Tales concept for an interesting audience of producers and distributors in order to finalize the financing of the film. We made a trailer of about 45 seconds to do so. Enjoy these pics of the making of.

It's a wrap!

2009-07-24T16:56:00.005+02:00

After three weeks of animating in all weather circumstances, we finished the shoot for the "Man bijt hond" leader. The editing is done and all images are being cleaned up in postproduction. Enjoy these images of "field animation".

A town called Panic @ Toronto

2009-07-24T15:50:00.008+02:00

"A town called Panic" is traveling around the world. We've just received the information that our work has been selected at the Toronto International Film Festival !!! "Panic" will be screened at the Midnight Madness program. If you're planning to go have a laugh in Toronto you can find all info on www.tiff.net

this is how the festival describes this years Midnight Madness:

"crazed animation, chick fights, zombies, vampires, a possessed cheerleader, exhilarating martial arts and more"

Fun guaranteed!

Beast creates leader 'Man Bijt Hond'!

2009-07-01T09:51:00.009+02:00

Thanks to the nice co-operation with Jan Eelen on the voice recording of the Flemish version of 'A Town Called Panic', Beast Animation got the opportunity to do a proposal for the next season's 'Man Bijt Hond' leader for Woestijnvis. And they liked it! So we created several walk and run cycles of the 'Man Bijt Hond'-dog and we will be shooting the stopframe animated leader on different locations in Flanders. Shooting will take several weeks, the leader will be on air in september 2009. In the meantime, enjoy these making-of pictures!

Paniek in het Dorp... wednesday in a cinema near you...

2009-06-15T16:47:00.004+02:00

if you live in Flanders of course :-). The french-speaking people will be attending 'Panique au Village' in the different cinemas in Wallonia and Brussels.

Paniek in het Dorp will be screened in Brussels (Kinepolis), Antwerp (Metropolis, UGC, Cartoons), Ghent (Sphinx), Leuven (Studio), Brugge (Lumière) and Hasselt (Kinepolis).

Please check the official 'Paniek in het Dorp' website for more news, background information and other paniekstuff. Hope you guys have the same fun watching it as we did making it!

Paniek in het Dorp... trailer

2009-05-15T16:38:00.003+02:00

While Beast Animation is (smokingwise!) in Cannes for the world premiere of 'Panique au Village', the promotion for the Flemish version 'Paniek in het Dorp' comes to cross speed. Humo will put the trailer on their 'wild site', postcards from the film will be all over flanders, an audio CD with extracts of the soundtrack is being prepared and soon you will see the filmposters everywhere. Enjoy the Flemish trailer... in scoop!

Beast Animation goes Cannes!

2009-04-23T21:44:00.010+02:00

'A town called Panic' selected at the Cannes Festival (13 - 24 may 2009)

Beast Animation, flemish co-producer of "a Town called Panic" (directed by Stéphane Aubier and Vincent Patar), is proud to be part of the Official Selection - out of competition - at the upcoming Filmfestival in Cannes. The film is not only co-produced by Beast Animation, most of the preparation and shooting took place at our Brussels based studios. More about 'A Town called Panic' at www.paniqueauvillage.com.

As a bonus: a guided tour (in flemish) through the Beast Studios during the making of by director of animation Steven. Have fun!

Beast Animation working hard on 1 minute... penisodes!

2009-04-15T23:10:00.006+02:00

Beast Animation is very proud to present its newest character: Master Bator, the only penis that really can be called a Superhero!

Master Bator plays the leading role in a 52 x 1 minute series for 'new' media players such as cell phones. The concept and the viral distribution of this type of mini series are aimed at both teenagers and young adults. The edgy humour and the atypical yet very recognisable characters should appeal to this broad audience.

Find out more about this thrilling project on the website of flanders animation... or simply click here.

A town called Panic... in Flemish!

2009-03-17T10:10:00.005+01:00

The upcoming weeks Beast's Ben and Beast's Steven are assisting voice director Jan Eelen on the flemish dubbing of Stéphane Aubier's and Vincent Patar's feature film 'A Town called Panic'. For the Flemish cast, Jan Eelen contacted the actors from his famous TV-comedy shows 'In de Gloria' and 'Het Eiland' to play some roles (Bruno Vanden Broecke, Tom Van Dijck, Wim Opbrouck, Lucas Vanden Eynde, Tania Vander Sanden, Frank Focketeyn, Ann Miller). To complete the (impressive) cast, Jelle de Beule and Jonas Geirnaert from 'Neveneffecten' will be lending their voices too. The Flemish dubbing and mixing is done at Brussels based Sonicville.

Beast on TVBrussel

2009-03-10T11:09:00.004+01:00

Last week Beast's Ben and Steven were interviewed by TV Brussel for the program 'Brussels International'. They talked about the past (with never shown old footage), the present (with never shown new footage) and the future (no footage yet:-). Although the interview is in Dutch (and you probably don't understand a word of what we are saying) we hope you enjoy the 14 (!) year younger versions of Ben and Steven.

New Cravendale commercials online.

2009-02-26T10:27:00.012+01:00

After the succes of the Cravendale commercials in 2006, Wieden & Kennedy and Nexus contacted directors Stéphane Aubier and Vincent Patar to make 3 new TV ads for Cravendale Milk. Sets and characters were build and animated in our Beast Animation studio's. Beast's Ben is 1st assistant director and Beast's Steven director of animation. Check out the new Cravendale website and watch the TV ads here!

Panique au village...

2009-02-24T09:26:00.012+01:00

Beast Animation and Beast Productions spend 2007 and a big part of 2008 on the animated feature 'Panique au Village' (A Town called Panic - Paniek in het Dorp). The film is directed by Stéphane Aubier and Vincent Patar and produced by La Parti Production (B), Beast Productions (B), Melusine (Lux) and Made In (Fr). Beast's Steven is director of animation, Beast's Ben is 1st assistant director and Beast's Pilar is co-producer.

Check out the teaser!

'Beiaard' lives!

2009-02-06T12:39:00.004+01:00

Beast Productions received a subsidy from the Flemish Audiovisual Fund (VAF) for the production of 'Beiaard', a 26 minutes special about a little boy and a legendary horse...

The film will be directed by Beast Animation's Steven De Beul and Ben Tesseur, and will be shot in stop motion and 2D animation. Production starts june 2009. We'll keep you posted!